WobblyReport

Security and stability of one’s shelter is a fluid situation, as so many Midwest residents were reminded this spring. But three months before the 2025 ice storm, in late January, nonprofit workers and volunteers in the Midwest and across the nation made efforts to contact and count people living without stable and secure housing. Known as the Point-in-Time (PIT) Count and coordinated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the goal is “a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January.” “It’s basically like the homeless census,” said Chad Lytle, Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency (NEMCSA) Street Outreach Director. Lytle coordinates homeless prevention in Crawford, Iosco, Ogemaw, Oscoda and Roscommon counties. “During that time, we're counting those who are literally homeless,” he said. “Literally homeless has a little tighter definition than people might think. ” The federal government’s definition is simple...

Vernal equinox occurs in Northern Michigan sooner than the end of winter proper. It’s a fact we and others live with amid perennial, invisibilising media campaigns proclaiming spring’s beginning at that moment in March when successive durations of light and dark are equal to one another. Someone updated a Wikipedia * article about the spring season on March 25, 2025, shortly before an ice storm interrupted electrical service to so many northern-Midwestern U.S. households that national media took notice . Michigan’s governor went on to deploy the National Guard to help move fuel and equipment around the state during recovery efforts. The Wikipedia article’s dovetailing introduction and conclusion provided broad definitions and lists of events both natural and cultural correlating with the spring season. In between, signs and stages were defined more systematically under headings and fields like ecology, astronomy and meteorology. Photo by Chandra Etymologically, the word spring ...

The snow packed down by snowshoes was the last to melt and fade into the yellow-gray lawn north of the house we rent. Deep pockets of snow are likely yet found 50 miles (80 kilometers) or so northwest, where the National Weather Service station near Gaylord recorded snowfall this year exceeding any other on the books. The season of renewal is premature at this latitude and everyone is looking around with justified suspicion. Not to say they fail to appreciate a day of sunshine and relative warmth. But there pervades a sense that discussing it too much or directly will jinx it. Tempting fate I cut my hair close. It is one of several ritual acts to ready myself. Waking slightly earlier; stretching more often; consuming more water and calories. A busy season is approaching but it’s not here yet—perhaps time’s left to prepare.  A robin has been running around the yard in front of the aforementioned house, having returned from wherever robins winter. The American Robin should remain ...

Working on President’s Day was preferable to taking the day off given Tuesday’s looming production deadlines. Instead, a Friday would afford daylight hours to explore a recreational trail in another aspect. 2m icicle not for scale Alpine skiing and ski touring long have been my favored outdoor activities in cold seasons. A pair of Tubbs brand snowshoes I acquired from the second-hand section of a sporting goods shop a couple decades ago have seen infrequent use. Consequently, the snowshoes are in considerably better condition than my skiing equipment, all of which is currently in some state of disrepair. A winter hike required careful planning to fit in the window of time my spouse worked and my child attended school. The weather forecast was favorable, predicting temperatures just below freezing on Friday and higher temperatures with possible rain/snow by the following Monday, indicating that some of this season’s peak snow conditions in the area were to be found that weekend. Tria...

The editor has confirmed that this will run in the March 4 edition of the Mountain Mail. To the editor of the Mountain Mail , As a blacklisted former ski patroller (looking at you, Mt. Cooper) who later covered the river raft guide wage controversy from the perspective of local guides (costing the former and possibly current publisher of this paper a bit in the way of ad revenues—sorry not sorry) as a journalist for the Chaffee County Times before being lowkey run out of town, I salute the community members and social critics who installed art on Tenderfoot Mountain in late February . Photo by Cailey McDermott for the Mountain Mail Mayor Shore wrung his hands in the fashion of a man whose salary prevents his understanding of the problem in his face. But let's not spend too much energy attempting to cast shame on the shameless. Call it vandalism or call it what you will. The writing's on the mountain and the power is at its base. If we can climb up there and put our mark on...

Studying the customs and rituals in Thai wedding ceremonies would have spoiled the element of surprise. Better to walk in without preconception or particular expectations, a tabula rasa for the day’s experiences, I reasoned. The setting for the rites would be familiar: my fiancée’s family home. And it was, at first. We had visited before and I’d been introduced to most of the residents in a couple small blocks of households, most of which were inhabited by members of her extended family. Local threads Pickup and flatbed trucks began arriving with various items. One had chairs and tables. Then came a truck with impressively large speakers. We left for town to rent clothing for the evening’s ceremonies. The bridal shop looked archetypical from the street, its storefront presenting mannequins behind glass wearing wedding dresses and tuxedos. We were expected. My fiancée chose a dress and began working with a shop attendant to take measurements and fit the dress properly. A tuxedo was...

My new year’s resolution this year is to do better regardless of conditions. This is not as straightforward as dropping a few pounds. It will be tricky to track and the math will be fuzzy. In terms of comparisons, I’m targeting the margins for improvement. Rather than meal-planning and hawk-eying bathroom scales, I’m casually self-reflective. How’s my hydration? 2025 is already more than 10% in the past. The pace of the days seemed to slow after the succession of late fall and winter holidays. But here is February, traffic cop of time travel, with a friendly warning that we are still cruising at something closer to freeway speed after having exited onto country highway. So I’m taking my foot off the gas. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Driving automobiles surely presents some of the most literal and straightforward opportunities for many of us to do better in variable conditions. Accidents are bound to happen, given not everyone on the roads is possessed of snow tires and saintly p...

(A video short)

The first Saturday night of 2025 at Skate Place brought out the youth. Holiday visitors had said their farewells and travelers had returned home. Classes were to resume that Monday. Chandra is making the most of her roller skates, a gift from Santa Claus. They are black and pink with hearts and wheels that light up multi-colored when they roll at speed. She has worn the skates often since Christmas and put them on in the morning of the aforementioned Saturday when she got out of bed. The atmosphere in the concessions area was frenetic with teenage chatter and popular music bleeding over from the skating area across the lobby. Blue, snowflake-shaped lights drifted around, issuing from a projector that cast them in moving patterns on the orange walls and matching tabletops, the yellow bench chairs and dark, retro carpet—you know the kind, with patterns resembling confetti and curly ribbons. * * * The library in West Branch is a fine place for quiet concentration regardless how many peopl...